Scottie Pippen has been at the receiving end of a lot of criticism recently. This is coming off the back of a lot of comments Pippen has made about Michael Jordan, in his recent memoir and the subsequent promotional tour.
Most notably, Pippen has said that Jordan disrespected him and the rest of the Chicago Bulls, and used them to elevate his own reputation during ‘The Last Dance’ docuseries. He’s also made comments about MJ as a player and a teammate.
Not many were happy, especially given Jordan’s history of being very complimentary and giving him his due at any and every opportunity he had. Moreover, Pippen actually called Jordan condescending for calling him his best teammate of all time.
A lot of people feel that Pippen’s comments are out of line. Charles Barkley suggested that Pippen was making these comments about MJ in order to cause controversy and garner interest for his upcoming book.
But Pippen has been slammed about his relation to Jordan for almost his entire career. In 1997, the Bulls lost a game to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. After the game, Larry Johnson, who guarded Scottie Pippen really well, took a shot at his role in the team.
”He needs to shut his mouth now. All he needs to do is to give the ball to 23. That’s his best play right there. ‘Here, 23. Bail us out.’ He needs to shut his mouth… He’s a bum. He shut himself down. Mike gives all them boys guts over there. If it wasn’t for Mike…”
Johnson was clearly trying to goad Pippen, given that he was able to shut Pippen down, limiting him to 14 points and 4 of his 18 shots. Clearly, Johnson was proud of the way he kept Pippen in check and said what he felt everyone thought about Michael Jordan and the Bulls.
As was the case then, Pippen is being slammed even now. Most recently, Shaquille O’Neal said that he would hit Pippen if he made the comments about Michael Jordan to his face. So Pippen has not been making any friends recently.
